Key takeaways
- L’Oréal is overhauling its travel retail strategy to focus on emotional, immersive experiences rather than transactional sales.
- Gen Z travellers, expected to make up 30% of global travellers by 2028, are driving demand for experiential retail.
- Brands like Kérastase, YSL, and L’Oréal Paris are introducing tech-driven, personalised, and Instagrammable activations in airports worldwide.
- The initiative has already launched in Singapore, Doha and Buenos Aires, with strong conversion results.
- The goal: transform airports into entertainment destinations and elevate the passenger journey.
A new era for travel retail: from transactional to experiential
At the TFWA show in Cannes this week, the company’s current President of Travel Retail, Emmanuel Goulin, introduced his successor Eva Yu.
According to Yu, travel retail remains strategic for the group but has needed a whole new approach. As such, the company has reinvented its travel retail offering to make it less transactional and more emotional and experiential — turning the airport into a place people can escape and be entertained.
Yu said that younger Gen Z travellers are set to account for 30% of global travellers by 2028, and that these shoppers are seeking experiences rather than simply buying products.
“We are reinventing the experience and turning airports into entertainment destinations,” she explained.
“This industry has been working too much in silos in the past, but we have one of the most exciting and data-rich ecosystems in the travel space. If you add the brand, the retailers, the airline, the airport, the digital ecosystem — that’s what we call the travel time. And by activating this part of the journey in an efficient way, you can really bring the passenger experience to the next level and make a difference.”
Inside L’Oréal’s airport activations: brand highlights
Yu said the business has started putting this into motion over the past 12 months, with pilots in Singapore, Doha and Buenos Aires airports.
“The results are there. When we are really working together as an industry to make the airport a greater and more exciting entertainment destination, it works — and we convert better,” she said.
The L’Oréal Group highlighted that once travellers are inside the departure lounge, there is a unique retail opportunity: people are in a relaxed state of mind, anticipating their trip while also looking for ways to spend time before their flight. The new strategy is designed to deliver a sense of the unexpected, a sense of place (whether the current or destination airport), a sense of service and luxury so customers feel pampered, and the opportunity to find the perfect gift — either for themselves or a loved one.
Meeting the modern traveller: data, tech and personalisation
Many of the group’s brands will take an experiential approach, including Valentino, Aesop, Miu Miu, Armani, Lancôme, Maison Margiela. Here we run through what will happen with some of the group’s key brands.
Kérastase
Professional haircare brand Kérastase is changing the in-airport haircare experience with K-Scan — AI-based technology built exclusively for the brand to analyse hair and scalp health and offer personalised regime advice.
Helena Rubinstein
Luxury skincare brand Helena Rubinstein is offering a high-end, spa-like experience where travellers can enjoy a moment of calm and indulgence, while also improving their skin before or after their flight. The brand has created a luxurious space where shoppers can relax and have a mini facial.
L’Oréal Paris
The mass beauty brand is introducing the Fly & Glow beauty bar experience, which feels like time spent in a spa. Here, the brand offers shoppers a moment to rejuvenate their skin with LED red light masks before they jet off, along with an array of travel retail kit specials to enjoy on holiday.
YSL
Fashion colour cosmetics brand YSL has based its new experiential space around its rock ’n’ roll roots, with plenty of Instagrammable moments on offer. Against a backdrop of black and neon purple lights — reminiscent of a high-end nightclub — shoppers can listen to music on sparkly cordless headphones, look in mirrors designed to resemble magazine covers, and spin ‘records’ that allow them to try on different looks via augmented reality.
La Roche-Posay
The suncare brand is already well placed in retail spaces where many shoppers are heading to sunnier climates. Its implementation of a tech tool that visibly shows sunscreen application has been a smart move. To promote its newest Anthelios product, shoppers stand in front of a screen that shows two views: one with a video of their reflection, and a second that shows their skin after sunscreen application.
Kiehl’s
The apothecary skincare brand has designed personalised stations that shoppers can choose based on their destination. If they’re heading to the pistes, they can select the Alpine climate station and there are also options for rainforest or desert climates. or for simply travelling on a plane and spending time in the sun anywhere. Once purchases are made, shoppers receive a special branded towel based on their destination.
